“Holiday Traditions Across Sports”

H iday Traditi s A oss Sp ts

Written by ADAM TARR Graphic by LUKE THEODOSSY

Holidays are days that celebrate and recognize certain dates of importance in history, cultures and religions. Many holidays are celebrated through the continued practice of annual traditions and by spending time with family and friends. The sports world over the years has implemented their own form of celebration through the annual hosting of big games on major holidays.

Thanksgiving in the United States has been celebrated for decades by traditions such as eating turkey and waiting in lines to go shopping. Watching and playing football have also become part of the celebration over the past 100 years. The National Football League (NFL) has played Thanksgiving day games every year since its creation in 1920. As of 2021, the league plays three games on the holiday. The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys both host their own game and have done so since 1934 and 1966, respectively. The third is an afternoon “primetime” game it marks the end of the regular college football regular season and mostly consists of games played by rival schools. This week of college football is known as “rivalry week.”

While it’s clear that football owns the Thanksgiving sports world, the National Basketball Association (NBA) claims the Christmas one. The NBA has played games on Christmas Day al games which usually feature some of the league’s most popular teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. The fans and teams make the most out of the Christmas spirit. Teams and players usually wear Christmas-themed clothes and special uniforms on the Christmas Day games. “Christmas basketball adds one more thing to look forward to on the holidays,” said Collin Cummins, a Las Lomas sophomore.

New Year’s Eve and Day is possibly the holiday with the best variety of sports to watch. The “Postseason” of college football, also known as the bowl games, is played throughout the months of December and early January. The most prominent of these bowls are known as the New Year’s 6 Bowls which feature the top teams in the country and are played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Two of these bowl games are played as semi ing that fans can spend their New Years’ Eve watching competitive football and counting down the minutes until midnight. The Rose Bowl Game annually hosted at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California has become the iconic start to the new year while also being the dramatic end to a long season. “Having the game on New Year adds a feeling of possibility for a team if they for a program if they have had a rough couple years,” said Las Lomas junior Henry Northen who attended the 2019 Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl Game is especially prestigious due to the Rose Bowl Stadiums’s beautiful backdrop and because it is the oldest annually hosted bowl game which has made playing in the game a bucket list item for every college football player.

The National Hockey League (NHL) also celebrates the New Year with an iconic yearly matchup known as the Winter Classic. It is a hockey game that takes place in an outdoor stadium while most professional hockey games are played in indoor arenas. The most exciting aspect of it is that outdoor stadiums typically host much larger crowds than indoor hockey arenas giving the game a special feeling. The 2014 Winter Classic between the Detroit Redwings and the Toronto Maple Leaves hosted over 105,000 people, an NHL record.

Outside of winter, sports fans can look forward to other great holiday traditions in sports throughout the year. In recent days like Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth by wearing themed clothes that remember the legacy of the two days. There are numerous events to celebrate the Fourth of July in the United States. Major League Baseball (MLB) plays four games on the holiday, which usually feature the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs also hosts their annual famous hotdog eating competition on Independence Day. Sports also tend to embrace the theme of other notable holidays such as Valentines Day and Labor Day when their games fall on them.